Patna,(BiharTimes): Both JD(U)LP ‘leader’ Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad have the distinction of breaking other parties ahead of trust votes. The latter had even created split in the BJP Legislature Party in the high time of Ram Janambhoomi movement in early 1990s. Thirteen out of 39 BJP MLAs crossed over to Lalu’s Janata Dal to save the government.

They were suitably rewarded.The names included Inder Singh Namdhari, who was the state BJP chief in late 1980s. Before 1995 a split in Legislature Party used to be formalized with the support of one-third MLAs––now two-thirds are required. That was a big blow to the saffron brigade as it was unthinkable to cause split when its graph was constantly going up.

That was not the only instance during the 15 years of Lalu-Rabri era.The Janata Dal (United), of course with the backing of BJP then, also indulged in various such exercises.In May 2005 the JD(U)-BJP combine caused a split in Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party by walking away with two-thirds of its MLAs. Yet the move to form the government did not succeed for some other reason.

But the biggest failure of Nitish Kumar-Sushil Modi combine came in March 2000. After the Assembly election both the RJD and JD(U)-BJP got 122 seats. But the then governor, Vinod Pande, obviously at the instance of the then Vajpayee government at the Centre, invited Nitish Kumar and not Rabri Devi to form the government though RJD claimed that it had the support of other parties too. In pre-Jharkhand days Bihar used to have 324 MLAs.

The Nitish government lasted for just seven days between March 3 and 10, 2000. The combine failed to break away a single MLA of the RJD, though it got support of seven Independent legislators, known for their muscle power and were cooling their heels in the jail.

This includes Suraj Bhan Singh, Sunil Pandey, Munna Shukla and others. The lure of money and muscle powers failed to attract even non-RJD MLAs. In contrast 25 MLAs of the Congress decided to side with Rabri Devi.To say that MLAs can be bought is not always true. As the BJP was in power in the Centre then all promises were made, but none could be won over.

Attempts were also made to create split in the RJD parliamentary party when the Vajpayee government was asked to prove majority when AIADMK withdrew support in April 1999. However, Lalu managed to guard his 17 MPs and the Vajpayee government was voted out.

This time too the Jitan Ram Manjhi camp, along with the BJP, are confident that they would be able to cause a big split in the JD(U) camp, which is enjoying the support of RJD, Congress, CPI and an Independent.But, once again, it seems that causing split in the Nitish camp is not so easy. In fact a series of political blunders committed by Manjhi and BJP’s failure to take any firm decision on trust votes have made the task esay for Nitish Kumar.

The Manjhi camp may fail in the number game, but they may still succeed in creating a situation which may lead to the imposition of President’s Rule. This may not be liked by the Nitish camp.